Discussion · House of Representatives
Kevin Kiley Independent
“California's leaders are ignoring what the voters want. Unelected state boards pass costly rules on cars and tires without a vote from the people or the legislature. State officials also write misleading ballot summaries, refuse to fund laws that voters passed, and raise taxes on healthcare even after voters said no. I am using my power in Congress to stop these state policies and keep costs down for families.”
“Mr. Speaker, I have a few words to say today about protecting democracy in the State of California, because there have been a number of recent examples of where the will of voters has been ignored, distorted, or overwritten in a way that has served to make our State less affordable and to lower our quality of life. There are a few basic ways that this has happened. The first is simply enacting far-reaching policies without any vote of the people or of the legislature. We saw this with the State’s attempt to ban gas- powered cars, which was promulgated by the Governor and enacted by the Air Resources Board. The legislature never voted on it. The people of California certainly never voted on it. Fortunately, because that order was predicated on Federal authority, we were able to take action here in Congress. I introduced a resolution to overturn that ban on gas-powered cars. It passed here in the House with very strong bipartisan support. It passed the Senate with bipartisan support, and it was signed into law by the President. You can now continue to drive the car of your choice, and the will of the people has prevailed because a poll from the Public Institute of California just showed that two-thirds of Californians, a supermajority of Californians, opposed the ban on gas-powered cars that they never got a say on. Yet, we are now seeing more of the same, even within the same genre, which is that the California Energy Commission recently issued an order to ban tires, or at least 70 percent of existing tires on the market. Now, estimates show that when Californians have to replace their tires, this will cost many of them hundreds of dollars. There is also good evidence suggesting that they will have to replace their tires more often, so they will have to buy more tires. They will have to buy more expensive tires and will have more waste, so it will be bad for the environment. This, once again, is a policy that the people of California did not vote on and that the legislature didn’t even vote on. I have joined my colleagues in calling on Governor Newsom to rescind this initiative, and we are exploring all options here in Congress for protecting the will of Californians, as well. That is one way that we see the will of voters being simply ignored, by enacting policy without ever consulting them or their elected representatives. A second way that this happens is through the distortion of the ballot initiative process. Now, this has been a longstanding problem, I must acknowledge, and both Republicans and Democrats have been guilty of it when they hold the Office of the Attorney General in California because it is the attorney general who writes the little summaries that you see on the ballot. What we have seen, both in this coming election and in many previous elections, is that the attorney general has abused that power to write skewed summaries, to write descriptions of the ballot initiative that present a misleading idea of what the initiative will actually do. When I was in the legislature, I introduced legislation to remove this power from the attorney general, given that this is a partisan official, and put it in the hands of a nonpartisan office called the legislative analyst. This legislation was endorsed by the State’s leading newspapers, the L.A. Times, the Sacramento Bee, and the Orange County Register. Unfortunately, it never passed, so we continue to have an initiative process where politicians have skewed it in order to get their preference to override that of the voters. The third way in which we see the will of voters being ignored or sidelined is that when an initiative passes, in some cases, politicians in Sacramento have simply decided to ignore it or to sabotage it. With Proposition 36, which was an initiative to restore commonsense consequences for retail theft and to get drug offenders the help that they need, the State’s political establishment led by Governor Newsom did everything they possibly could to oppose this initiative. Voters had other ideas and passed it with 68 percent of the vote. It passed in each and every one of California’s 58 counties. It passed with more votes than any initiative on the ballot that year. Rather than respecting the will of the voters, we have seen, in the 2 years since its passage, that the Governor and the legislature are refusing to adequately fund the initiative as directed by the voters. Then, perhaps most egregiously, in some cases, we see the will of voters not only being compromised or sabotaged, but just outright overridden and ignored by actions of politicians in Sacramento. This was most clear in a recent measure as part of what has been called the largest tax increase in California history to raise taxes on healthcare. The legislature and the Governor have instituted a new healthcare tax called the managed care organization tax, which the nonpartisan legislative analyst estimates will increase healthcare premiums by $400 for a family of four. Now, this is bad enough on its face, but what is worse is that California voters specifically passed an initiative just a couple of years ago saying that this tax cannot be raised, that this healthcare tax cannot be increased. Yet, the State’s politicians decided to override the express orders of voters and to raise their costs anyway. There is a way we can fight back here, as well. I have asked the Department of Health and Human Services not to approve this new tax increase, which is required under law. Mr. Speaker, I think it is a very troubling trend when you see the will of California voters not being respected because, in each of these cases, you see those who are in positions of authority in Sacramento taking actions that run against what Californians want for good reason, because it is increasing their costs, the cost of their cars, the cost of their tires, the cost of healthcare, or it is making our communities less safe. I view an important part of my job here to be a check and balance in a way that protects the will of California voters and certainly serves to be a check and balance against measures that have made our State so unaffordable. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.”
Mr. Speaker, I have a few words to say today about protecting democracy in the State of California, because there have been a number of recent examples of where the will of voters has been ignored, distorted, or overwritten in a way that has served to make our State less affordable and to lower our quality of life. There are a few basic ways that this has happened. The first is simply enacting far-reaching policies without any vote of the people or of the legislature. We saw this with the State’s attempt to ban gas- powered cars, which was promulgated by the Governor and enacted by the Air Resources Board. The legislature never voted on it. The people of California certainly never voted on it. Fortunately, because that order was predicated on Federal authority, we were able to take action here in Congress. I introduced a resolution to overturn that ban on gas-powered cars. It passed here in the House with very strong bipartisan support. It passed the Senate with bipartisan support, and it was signed into law by the President. You can now continue to drive the car of your choice, and the will of the people has prevailed because a poll from the Public Institute of California just showed that two-thirds of Californians, a supermajority of Californians, opposed the ban on gas-powered cars that they never got a say on. Yet, we are now seeing more of the same, even within the same genre, which is that the California Energy Commission recently issued an order to ban tires, or at least 70 percent of existing tires on the market. Now, estimates show that when Californians have to replace their tires, this will cost many of them hundreds of dollars. There is also good evidence suggesting that they will have to replace their tires more often, so they will have to buy more tires. They will have to buy more expensive tires and will have more waste, so it will be bad for the environment. This, once again, is a policy that the people of California did not vote on and that the legislature didn’t even vote on. I have joined my colleagues in calling on Governor Newsom to rescind this initiative, and we are exploring all options here in Congress for protecting the will of Californians, as well. That is one way that we see the will of voters being simply ignored, by enacting policy without ever consulting them or their elected representatives. A second way that this happens is through the distortion of the ballot initiative process. Now, this has been a longstanding problem, I must acknowledge, and both Republicans and Democrats have been guilty of it when they hold the Office of the Attorney General in California because it is the attorney general who writes the little summaries that you see on the ballot. What we have seen, both in this coming election and in many previous elections, is that the attorney general has abused that power to write skewed summaries, to write descriptions of the ballot initiative that present a misleading idea of what the initiative will actually do. When I was in the legislature, I introduced legislation to remove this power from the attorney general, given that this is a partisan official, and put it in the hands of a nonpartisan office called the legislative analyst. This legislation was endorsed by the State’s leading newspapers, the L.A. Times, the Sacramento Bee, and the Orange County Register. Unfortunately, it never passed, so we continue to have an initiative process where politicians have skewed it in order to get their preference to override that of the voters. The third way in which we see the will of voters being ignored or sidelined is that when an initiative passes, in some cases, politicians in Sacramento have simply decided to ignore it or to sabotage it. With Proposition 36, which was an initiative to restore commonsense consequences for retail theft and to get drug offenders the help that they need, the State’s political establishment led by Governor Newsom did everything they possibly could to oppose this initiative. Voters had other ideas and passed it with 68 percent of the vote. It passed in each and every one of California’s 58 counties. It passed with more votes than any initiative on the ballot that year. Rather than respecting the will of the voters, we have seen, in the 2 years since its passage, that the Governor and the legislature are refusing to adequately fund the initiative as directed by the voters. Then, perhaps most egregiously, in some cases, we see the will of voters not only being compromised or sabotaged, but just outright overridden and ignored by actions of politicians in Sacramento. This was most clear in a recent measure as part of what has been called the largest tax increase in California history to raise taxes on healthcare. The legislature and the Governor have instituted a new healthcare tax called the managed care organization tax, which the nonpartisan legislative analyst estimates will increase healthcare premiums by $400 for a family of four. Now, this is bad enough on its face, but what is worse is that California voters specifically passed an initiative just a couple of years ago saying that this tax cannot be raised, that this healthcare tax cannot be increased. Yet, the State’s politicians decided to override the express orders of voters and to raise their costs anyway. There is a way we can fight back here, as well. I have asked the Department of Health and Human Services not to approve this new tax increase, which is required under law. Mr. Speaker, I think it is a very troubling trend when you see the will of California voters not being respected because, in each of these cases, you see those who are in positions of authority in Sacramento taking actions that run against what Californians want for good reason, because it is increasing their costs, the cost of their cars, the cost of their tires, the cost of healthcare, or it is making our communities less safe. I view an important part of my job here to be a check and balance in a way that protects the will of California voters and certainly serves to be a check and balance against measures that have made our State so unaffordable. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.